TriCo Bancshares Upped to Strong Buy - Analyst Blog

TriCo Bancshares has been witnessing rising earnings estimates on
the back of strong first-quarter 2013 results. Moreover, this
well-known commercial banking services provider delivered positive
earnings surprises in 3 of the last 4 quarters with an average beat
of 21.8%. The long-term expected earnings growth rate for this
stock is 9%.

TriCo Bancshares reported its first-quarter results on Apr 29 with
earnings per share of 53 cents, substantially beating the Zacks
Consensus Estimate of 33 cents by 60.6% and more than doubling from
the year-ago earnings of 25 cents. Robust results for the reported
quarter were primarily aided by higher non-interest income, reduced
non-interest expenses and benefit from loan losses.

Non-interest income jumped 23.6% year over year to $10.2 million.
Benefit from loan losses stood at $1.1 million as compared with the
provision of $4.0 million in the prior-year quarter. Non-interest
expense dipped 5.7% from the year-ago period to $21.6
million.

However, on the downside, net interest income decreased 1.9% to
$24.6 million. The fall was primarily due to lower yield on loans
and a decline in average balance in investments.

Credit quality continues to exhibit an improvement. Nonperforming
originated loans were $54.8 million, waning 22.6% year over year.
Net charge-offs for the quarter were $2.8 million compared with
$4.9 million in the year-ago quarter.

Following first-quarter 2013 results for TriCo Bancshares, the
Zacks Consensus Estimate for 2013 increased 7.6% to $1.41 per share
as 1 of the 4 estimates was revised higher over the last 7 days.
For 2014, 1 out of the 4 estimates moved north over the same time
frame, lifting the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 3.6% to $1.42 per
share.